Rudd, Hockey pull out of 'Sunrise' spot

The World Today - Monday, 16 April , 2007 12:14:00

Reporter: Gillian Bradford

EMMA ALBERICI: The Opposition leader Kevin Rudd, has pulled out of his regular spot on a television morning show in the wake of a controversy over his inclusion in a live broadcast on Anzac Day.

For the past five years Mr Rudd and the Workplace Relations Minister, Joe Hockey, have had a weekly spot on the show, involving friendly banter over the political issues of the day.

But last week, the free bit of good publicity came to an end for Mr Rudd, when he admitted his office did know that the Seven Network had asked Vietnam veterans to stage a dawn service at Long Tan so it would fit in better with the timing of the Sunrise program.

And while he wasn't caught up in the Anzac Day brawl, the Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey has also decided to withdraw from the program's regular line up.

From Canberra, Gillian Bradford reports.

(Sound of the Sunrise theme song: "Sunrise back from 6:00am tomorrow. Wake up with friends")

GILLIAN BRADFORD: Kevin Rudd has been waking up with his Sunrise friends for the past five years.

The Channel Seven program has mastered the art of the cosy morning TV chat, and helped build the now Opposition leader a profile he couldn't have dreamt of as a shadow minister.

But this supposedly harmless vehicle has now come back to bite Kevin Rudd.

MELISSA DOYLE: Now, we've heard this morning from both Kevin Rudd and Joe Hockey who have been speaking overnight and they have decided it is no longer possible to continue as regular weekly guests on Sunrise.

GILLIAN BRADFORD: So, why did Mr Rudd and his sparring partner on the segment, the Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey, decide to leave?

This is what the program hosts David Koch and Melissa Doyle said this morning.

MELISSA DOYLE: They point to their long-standing friendship and their now senior positions that they hold in opposing parties.

DAVID KOCH: Now, they both thank Sunrise viewers for the opportunity to speak candidly every week. We at Sunrise understand their decision. Politics can sometimes be a pretty nasty game and it was never the intention of the segment to get bogged down in that.

GILLIAN BRADFORD: The one issue nobody was talking about was the Anzac Day debacle.

Channel Seven has all year been trying to organise a live broadcast from Vietnam on Anzac Day, and in the process was trying to convince veterans to stage an earlier dawn service at Long Tan to better fit in with Sunrise's peak viewing time, just after 7:00am.

The problem for Kevin Rudd is that he was planning to be at this service, and despite initially denying it, his office had been informed by an official within Veterans' Affairs that this idea to bring the dawn service forward would outrage veterans.

When this news came to light that Mr Rudd's office had been warned, the Government prepared for an attack. But then who came to Mr Rudd's defence than none other than his old mate and fellow member of the Sunrise family, Joe Hockey.

JOE HOCKEY: No one should in any way doubt the intentions of Sunrise, of Adam Boland, of Kochie, Kevin Rudd or anyone else.

GILLIAN BRADFORD: That contribution by Mr Hockey last Friday probably explains why he's also decided not to appear on Sunrise anymore, even though he wasn't caught up in the Anzac Day story.

Mr Hockey does consider Mr Rudd a friend, and as part of the happy double act on Sunrise he's struggled to capitalise on his opponent's errors.

The Prime Minister, on Brisbane radio this morning, had no such trouble.

JOHN HOWARD: I do, having read the stuff in the newspapers, and that is essentially my knowledge of it, it doesn't look as though Mr Rudd's original protestations were correct.

I mean, he apparently rang people and complained very heavily and issued all sorts of threats, and in the end he was found to be wrong and the newspaper was found to be correct. Well as I say, the facts speak for themselves, but I think it'll leave a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of people.